Released to all Facebook Timeline users earlier this year, the Cover Photo is one of the largest areas of dedicated real estate for a brand on Facebook. While this adds a new component to your Facebook marketing, many companies continue to leave this great branding opportunity on the table.

So how can you optimize your Facebook Cover Photo for your own business success? Here are a few simple tips.

1. Choose a visually engaging image

The cover photo is one of the first chances you have to make an impression on your community. Choose a photo that best represents your brand, and your users’ experience on Facebook.

As tempting as it may be, do not try to slam a ton of text in your cover photo. Facebook is changing their language on cover photos to indicate that no more than 20% of the photo can be text. Where before you could try and skirt the rules, they now have been working on a tool to detect image/text balance and will be enforcing this. I know it’s tempting to throw a URL or other CTA on there because it looks like the perfect social billboard, but Facebook clearly doesn’t want this.

2. Create an editorial schedule for your cover photo

Try different ideas for creating engaging cover photos from month to month. Look to the season, general and to your industry.

Perhaps you’re hosting a big conference this month, why not use a cover photo of the last event you hosted full of people? Christmas coming up? Find out a way to tie your brand message into that image, even if it’s as simple as resizing your company holiday photo.

3. Engage your fans

Why not feature a fan of the week? Crowdsource photos from your community and design a graphic you could easily update each week to feature someone new. Being recognized by others is a key tenet of social media and goes a long way for developing relationships between people. Being recognized by a brand can foster the same relationships.

4. Size it up

There are some really bad cover photos out there. Images cut off, blurry, or not even present at all. This really just looks ugly, and is not helping your cause.

The Facebook Cover Photo should be 851 pixels wide and 315 pixels tall.

Cover Images should be 851 pixels by 315 pixels. While you can upload other sizes, your best bet is to create a custom image that is sized properly. Also, design in RBG or sRGB, not CMYK. CMYK is for print work. Cover photos may not contain any of the following:

• Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”
• Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page’s About section
• References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features
• Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”

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As Facebook evolves as a platform, what new opportunities do you see or would you like to see for brands to better market themselves visually?

Know any other great cover photos? Leave the link in the comments below!

Does your business need help with social media? Send me a message and we can chat.